Miles and Miles of Smiles at a Cornwall Feast Week

As these are difficult times we are experiencing at the moment I thought I'd travel back to a time to when there seemed to be smiles and joy everywhere - well, at least in Cornwall.

So I travelled back in my time machine to a Feast Week in St.Austell.

Look at all of those smiling faces. Okay the guy below might not look too happy, but he was a contrast to everyone else.

Even the horse was smiling. You can't actually see his full smile but, trust me, his gnashers had a quite a grin.

Of course, some of the more distinguished characters had to hide their smiles - for some people there is a time and a place for everything.

Behind their expressions though there is a build up of smiles waiting to explode.

Now that is some happy hat below! You can see his usual smile in the very first photo of this post.

And the lady below has a lovely smile.

Strewth, even the girl with her leg held high in the air has a wobbly smile.

As for the strong arm of the law there must be at least an occasional chuckle amongst the litigation.

Historically, St Austell had its week of 'feasten' activities surrounding the celebration of the Feast of Saint Austol. Somehow though this fizzled out in 1946. Since then there have been attempts to resurrect the festival.

The photo below is from the Feast in 1910, though most of the participants don't look too happy about the proceedings!

As is apparent the town of St.Austell is named after St. Austol.

The saint had a great friendship with St.Muen (St. Mewan today) of the adjoining parish. St. Muen died on June 21st 627 and St. Austol died seven days later.

Keep smiling, stay safe. As my dear old dad used to say:

Smile awhile
and while you smile 
another smiles
and soon there's miles and miles of smiles.
And life's worth living because you smiled.